Localized areas of skin damage and adjacent tissues are often due to applied pressure, friction, or shear. These areas of skin damage include decubitus ulcers, which are also known as pressure sores, bedsores and pressure ulcers. These sores most often occur over bony prominences such as the hips, heels, spine, and other joints and are the result of a prolonged lack of blood flow to the affected area. Although the development of these sores is based on a variety of factors such as age, nutrition, skin moisture, and general health, pressure ulcers are usually found in patients suffering from immobility, spinal cord injury, or other severe illnesses and the elderly.
Annual costs of treating pressure ulcers in the US are in excess of three billion dollars. Prevention of pressure ulcers is of major importance to clinics, hospitals and nursing care facilities. Specialty beds are a major part of the solution. Most designs attempt to redistribute the pressure that builds up underneath body protrusions where ulcers tend to develop (buttocks, elbow, hips, heels, ankles, shoulders, back, and back of head).
FIGS. 2a-c depict existing beds to address pressure ulcers and include low air loss mattresses, alternating pressure mattresses, air fluidized beads mattresses or a combination of low air loss mattresses, alternating pressure mattresses, and air fluidized beads mattresses.